Disappointment

This afternoon I picked up Little Bear, who came running to the gate as I walked in (usually she stands there & waits for me to go to her).*Then I picked up Cheetah who asked me how my day was - It was good but long I tell him. I'm glad it's over (which at 5:30pm it is actually very far from over, but I was a lot more optomistic now that I was on my way home). Cheetah tells me that he had such a good day he is sorry it ended and proceeds to tell me all about his day. He also tells me that he wants to practice for "80 minutes tonight... No make that an hour and 20 minutes" (he is developing a very dry sense of humour. Don't know where he gets that from)



We get home & we all have a play in the backyard like we usually do, then we come upstairs & Cheetah has a drink & afternoon tea & then starts his Clarinet practice like he usually does. 20 minutes later he comes into me and asks me if I remember him telling me yesterday about the arts extravaganza? Oh dear... His eyes are welling up, his bottom lip is quivering & he is trying very hard to maintain his composure.



He then tells me that he can't perform a solo at the Arts Extravaganza because he's only in grade 4 (remember I said the odd numbered grades are the ones who perform each year). It takes him a while to even tell me this much because after every syllable he has to stop and hold his breath a second to keep from crying.



A big hug later & he can't hold it in anymore & cries softly on my lap. As a parent that's the worst. Everything you say risks just making the pain worse. After just holding him for a while I tried to tell him some things to make him feel better.



The first thing I told him was that "I love me!" I was trying to tell him that I love the fact that he loves playing the clarinet so much that he is working so hard at it & so on, but the first thing that came out of my mouth was "I love me!" Not what you expect your parent to say when you are feeling miserable about yourself and it made him smile. A few more unintentional freudian slips later & he was laughing at me. - Disaster averted!



Later I was cooking chops & didn't realise that I hadn't put the fans on in the living room. 10 minutes later & the BEEP BEEP BEEP of the smoke alarm is piercing the loungeroom which by this point looked like Beijing before the olympics came to town. Then DH, Cheetah & I are all running around like 3 year olds at a Wiggles concert trying to clear the air around the smoke alarm - that didn't work so DH pulls it down and races it off to another room to try and squash the noise. Having some success (turns out it has a hush button - who knew!) he brings it back out & puts it on the bench near the window where it makes a pitiful little bip....bip.....bip. Not sure if it was a flat battery or the wisps of smoke breezing past the alarm on their way to freedom, so I removed the battery just to be sure!!



20 minutes after this Little Bear wakes up (Yes she slept through 5 minutes of screeeeching & hullabaloo and then woke up when everyone was quietly sitting down eating their dinner). Normally she would put herself back to sleep but not tonight. She was wide awake & ready to party. Am I asking too much if I wish for a sleep in tomorrow?



Finally 2 kids in bed & Australia won the bronze medal in the Women's water polo after a nailbiting tied game followed by a tie in penalty time followed by a penalty shootout where we beat Hungary by 1 goal.*Just one more load of washing to hang out & a smoke alarm to reinstall (with new battery) & I might be able to call it a night. Not sure if I can sleep after all the excitement!